A Flash  animation or  Flash  cartoon is an
animated  film  which  is  created  using
Adobe Flash animation software and often distributed in the .swf file format. It can be created in Flash or with other programs capable of writing .swf files. The term Flash animation not only refers to the file format but to a certain kind of movement and visual style which, in many circles, is seen as simplistic or unpolished. However, with dozens of Flash animated television series, countless more Flash animated television commercials, and award-winning online shorts in circulation, Flash animation is enjoying a renaissance.

Flash animations are typically distributed by way of the World Wide Web, in which case they are often referred to as Internet cartoons, online cartoons, or webtoons. Web Flash animations may be interactive and are often created in a series. A Flash animation is distinguished from a Webcomic, which is a comic strip distributed via the Web, rather than an animated cartoon.

In recent times most of the people prefer to acquire information from websites. So, the web content needs to be packed with useful information. Though initially the visitors get attracted to the colorful and bright sites, in the long run they judge the effectiveness of a site on the basis of its informative content.

The primary objective of the web developers should be to create such a website that will be able to retain the attention of the visitors for a longer time period. In order to do so the website design needs to be user friendly as well as visually appealing. Usually for making a site attractive flash animation an be applied. Some of the most remarkable advantages of a flash website are mentioned below:

- Flash website design is nowadays well-accepted by Google- the only problem of a flash animated website is that search engine bots are unable to crawl them. However, at present times due to the advancements in search engine algorithms, search engines no longer ignore flash animations. Instead nowadays websites with flash design have begun to appear in the Google search results. According to some of the search engine optimization experts the flash animated websites will get preference from the major search engines in the near future.

- Flash design can make web pages interactive- usually flash sites are popular for their interactivity. Flash no doubt creates interactive navigation in the website that keeps the visitors entertained and they are also able to see all your web pages without any difficulty.

- Flash makes a site lively and vibrant- in this world of Internet people will find a number of websites. So, the duty of the web designer is to create a unique site otherwise it will remain unnoticed in the crowd. Static images and text make the sites look dead. So, use flash animations, which will surely make your site lively and vibrant.

Though flash animated websites have several benefits, these are some of the most striking advantages of flash websites.